Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Ken Penner <kpenner AT stfx.ca>]

In Ecclesiastes, עוֹלָם is always written plene except for here in 3:11 (and 1:10, which is plural). This makes me favour Fox’s theory.

Ecclesiastes is the most literal (aiming at one-to-one correspondence) of all the books in the “Septuagint,” so it is not surprising that in Ecclesiastes, עוֹלָם always becomes αἰών and αἰών always is a translation of עוֹלָם.

 

Ken M. Penner, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Religious Studies

2329 Notre Dame Avenue, 409 Nicholson Tower

St. Francis Xavier University

Antigonish, NS  B2G 2W5

Canada

(902)867-2265

kpenner AT stfx.ca

 

 

 

From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of John Leake
Sent: Saturday, June 01, 2013 12:58 PM
To: b-hebrew
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Ecclesiastes 3:11

 

I'm interested that 'eternity' is said to be the 'traditional' interpretation. That's the LXX's position, certainly (αἰῶνα), but the Vulgate (mundum) and Rashi (and I see the JPS translation) all go for 'world' which indeed gives much more satisfactory parallelism (את הכל עשה || את העלם נתן). Just a observation.

John Leake

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ان صاحب حياة هانئة لا يدونها انما يحياها

He who has a comfortable life doesn't write about it - he lives it

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On 1 Jun 2013, at 16:05, "Rev. Bryant J. Williams III" <bjwvmw AT com-pair.net> wrote:

Dear Jerry,

 

Considering the immediate context and the near context of the chapter I would think that changing the pointing would, although possible, but not probable. The consonantal text would go either way, but 'olam fits much better. The immediate context has not time represented by time, "zeman," in 3:1-8, then 'olam in 3:11, 14 in juxtaposition with creation represented by (asah, "made"). This gives more to the thought that "eternity" has a more metaphysical quality to the thought of "timelessness." This "timelessness" is something that man is not able to wrap the mind around as indicated by the latter part of the verse in which "man" is unable to "fathom," "understand," "comprehend," the works God has made. The use of 'olam in verse 14 corresponds to what is said in verse 11. In the end man is to "revere" God, i.e. to glorify and praise Him for who He is, The Creator.

 

Rev. Bryant J. Williams III

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